Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a government contractor with unlawfully sharing categorised info with a Washington Post reporter, increasing the prison case introduced towards him earlier this month for allegedly mishandling the knowledge.
The case has turn out to be a flashpoint for press freedom advocates over the Trump administration’s method to the First Amendment and lingering questions over the way it approached the seizure of the reporter’s computer systems and telephone days after Perez-Lugones was arrested.
Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s gadgets have been seized in a pre-dawn FBI raid on January 14 pursuant to a warrant associated to the investigation into Perez-Lugones. Government seizures of reporter information are exceedingly uncommon within the US, and The Post and press freedom advocates instantly decried the motion.
The new charges characterize the primary time the Justice Department in Aurelio Perez-Lugones’ case has publicly formally tied his conduct to Natanson’s reporting. The earlier court docket allegations towards him solely accused him of illegally copying and taking residence categorised info.
The Post and Natanson haven’t been charged with any crime. NCS has reached out to the Post for remark.
The charges accepted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland towards Perez-Lugones embrace 5 counts of unlawfully transmitting the knowledge to the reporter by way of an encrypted messaging utility starting in late October 2025 and persevering with by way of early January. The grand jury additionally accepted a single depend of illegal retention of categorised info, a cost he had beforehand confronted by way of a prison criticism, which didn’t require sign-off by a federal grand jury.
The 11-page indictment towards Perez-Lugones, a former member of the US Navy, refers to Natanson as “Reporter 1,” and references 5 articles she co-authored or contributed to that allegedly contained the categorised info he allegedly offered to her.
The indictment consists of redacted pictures of communications between Perez-Lugones and Natanson, together with one by which he advised her he was “going quiet for a bit” after he allegedly despatched her pictures of categorised paperwork.
“I’m going quiet for a bit … just to see if anyone starts asking questions,” he wrote, in accordance to the indictment.
Perez-Lugones beforehand acknowledged he mishandled categorised info, prosecutors mentioned, in accordance to a court docket listening to transcript obtained by NCS. Perez-Lugones advised federal investigators he was indignant about “recent government activity,” Assistant US Attorney Patricia McLane mentioned throughout a detention listening to earlier this month.
If convicted, Perez-Lugones, 61, faces a most sentence of 10 years in federal jail for every of the six counts.
He’s presently behind bars and has not but been formally introduced with the charges beforehand introduced towards him, or the brand new ones and subsequently hasn’t entered a plea to any of them.
Attorneys for Perez-Lugones didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Reporter’s residence searched by FBI in leak investigation
A decide had signed off on the Justice Department’s warrant request for the reporter, permitting for the shock search final week, however underlying court docket paperwork on what the decide was advised, and the way the DOJ had argued {that a} journalist wanted to be searched, are nonetheless below seal.
Top Trump administration management has mentioned publicly that Perez-Lugones allegedly leaking to the Washington Post put nationwide safety in danger. Yet it’s a serious deviation for the Justice Department to condemn correct information reporting as a threat to the nation, even when there’s an underlying prison case over an individual with a clearance allegedly leaking, and courts have for many years protected journalists’ skill to publish even protected authorities info.
The prison investigation into Perez-Lugones has raised vital questions across the Justice Department’s reasoning for subsequently looking the Post reporter’s residence and seizing her electronics – a step hardly ever taken and extensively criticized by each government department and congressional figures in previous administrations.
Recent statements in court docket by the Washington Post say the electronics federal investigators seized from Natanson contained many supply contacts she had relationship again years. That additionally has raised questions of how the Justice Department could also be accessing the journalists’ knowledge because it took her gadgets.
A federal decide on Wednesday blocked the Justice Department from inspecting Natanson’s telephone and computer systems in the meanwhile. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter granted The Post’s movement for a “standstill order” within the case, scheduling oral arguments for February 6.
“The government must preserve but must not review any of the materials that law enforcement seized … until the Court authorizes review of the materials by further order,” the Justice of the Peace decide wrote.
NCS’s Brian Stelter contributed to this report.